There's a catchy lyric from the Counting Crows' song, Omaha: "I think you better turn your ticket in and get your money back at the door."
Many Gophers fans walking out of Mariucci Arena on Friday night probably wished they could do just that after the Gophers were completely bottled up by Nebraska Omaha, that gigantic yet stingy team from "somewhere in middle America," as Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz would chime.
The third-ranked Gophers paid for a drowsy effort the final 40 minutes. Brainerd native Josh Archibald scored the winning goal and assisted on two others as the 13th-ranked Mavericks, who have won seven in a row, handed the Gophers their first home loss since March 3 with a 3-2 victory.
Goalie Adam Wilcox lost for the first time since Nov. 3, but he wasn't helped by his sleepwalking teammates.
"Chain fell off the bike tonight," coach Don Lucia said. "We just couldn't make plays, whether it was a guy in the slot ready to hammer a puck and it's in his skate or just disjointed coming up the rink. ... Guys seemed, for whatever reason, like they didn't have their legs. I was surprised."
The highlight -- or lowlight -- of the siesta came when captain Zach Budish made a casual pass through the slot of his own zone from the half wall. Mavericks leading scorer Ryan Walters picked the puck off and dropped it to Archibald, who buried the eventual winner 4 minutes, 43 seconds into the third period.
"Terrible turnover by me," Budish said. "I gave it to their two hottest players, and they made no mistake putting it in the back of the net."
The goal came a minute after the Gophers showed no fire on a refuse-to-shoot power play. It also followed a second period in which the Gophers went the first seven minutes without a shot and lost their 'A' game after taking a 2-1 first-period lead.
